Keir Starmer – 2024 Article on Sadiq Khan

Part of the article by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, published in the Guardian on 1 May 2024.

One of the most important decisions taken tomorrow will be who leads our nation’s capital. Labour’s candidate for London mayor, Sadiq Khan, knows what it is like to inherit a Tory shambles. His predecessor spent eight years wasting £53m, £43m of it taxpayers’ money, on a garden bridge to nowhere, burying a report about the appalling state of London’s air and squandering taxpayers’ money on unusable water cannon.

I have known Sadiq for many years, and I am proud to call him a friend and a colleague. He is someone driven by the principle of giving people the same opportunities he had, which allowed him to go from a council estate in Tooting to leading our capital. During his tenure, Sadiq has transformed the mayoralty from a laughing stock to showing leadership. Every pupil in every London state primary school now receives a free school meal. The capital’s air is cleaner to breathe. The Hopper bus fare, allowing unlimited journeys within one hour for one price, the Superloop express bus routes and the Elizabeth Line have all been delivered. Overall housing completions recently hit their highest level in London since the 1930s and more new council homes are being built now than at any time since the 1970s. And 330,000 good jobs have been created through City Hall initiatives. This is the power of Labour in government. And let us not forget that Sadiq has managed all of this in the teeth of a Tory government; just imagine what could be achieved working with a Labour one.